Lesson Plan 1: reading, vocabulary and speaking practice

This lesson can be used both in the classroom as well as in the computer lab.

Your needs

Let us imagine the following classroom situation:

You are looking for supplementary reading material in the topic of travel and tourism. You want your students to improve their vocabulary in this topic area. You also want your students to improve their speaking skills. You have a mixed ability class.

Preparation

Step One

Use the Quick Link feature on the main menu to find a suitable article on the desired topic. In this case, we have chosen the article on Ecotourism from Issue 3, 2003. (To view a simple text version of the article, click here.)

Step Two

Read through the text at each level and identify a few key vocabulary areas that you want to focus on. You should be able to find a group of words that are more or less common to the three levels. Type or write the lists on a sheet of paper as follows:

From all three levels: look around, travel, tourism, resort, leisure, facilities, accommodation
From level 3: unspoilt, spoilt

Notice that the words are not necessarily difficult. They serve as points of reference and they will be exploited more fully later (See Step 3 of the Follow up, below).

Prepare a list of topics for discussion as follow up work. Suggested topics are:

Are you an ecotourist?
Have you ever been on a package holiday? Would you like to go on one?
Where would you prefer to stay, at the Atlantis hotel or the Tiamo resort?
Do you know any unspoilt tourist resorts?
Do you know any spoilt tourist areas? Describe these places.
Talk about your last holiday? What was the place like? Where did you stay? What facilities were there?

Step Three (required only if you are using the material in the classroom rather than the lab)

Print the article and comprehension questions at each level. To do this, select the appropriate frame by clicking inside it. Then select "print" from the menu. Choose "options" and select "print the selected frame". In this way you will only print the text rather than the whole screen.

In the classroom

Step One: pre-reading

Divide the students into groups according to ability. Give each group of students the word lists that you previously created in Step 2 above. Get students to work in pairs within their groups and ask them to discuss the meaning and use of the words. (They may use a dictionary or ask you for help.) As they work, they should write an example sentence for each word.

When they have finished, clarify the vocabulary together as a class. Make sure that the use of tricky words like travel are clear. They should understand that travel is used mainly as a verb. When it is a noun, it is only used as an abstract word, never as a singular word. You may like to clarify the difference between travel, trip and journey at this stage. Ask students to give one or two examples of the following. Do not spend too much time on this as you will have an opportunity to discuss these questions later (See Step 3 of the Follow up, below):

different kinds of resort (Eg: a mountain / seaside resort, etc, or they could name well-known resorts)
different leisure activities
different kinds of facilities
different kinds of accommodation

Step Two: Reading

Students now read the text at the appropriate level, either using the computer or reading from the text version that you have printed and photocopied. Allow students to consult together as they work. They should also answer the comprehension questions.

Go through the comprehension check for each group and clarify any misunderstanding. Then ask the students to read the text again, this time underlining the sentences containing the key words from their lists. Make sure they understand how the vocabulary items are used.

Step Three: Follow up

1) Vocabulary work
Focus on the following vocabulary items:

look (a)round
Ask students what other expressions they know with look. Clarify the following: look forward to, look at and look up (Eg: look up a word in a dictionary, a number in a telephone directory)

tourism
Ask students how many different kinds of tourism are mentioned. They should produce the following list: ecotourism, green tourism, package/mass tourism adventure tourism.

accommodation
Ask students how many different kinds of accommodation are mentioned. They should produce the following list: hotel complex, bungalow, guest house.

Ask what other kinds of accommodation there are. Teach: camping site, tent, caravan, self-catering accommodation, etc.

facilities
Ask students to name the facilities available at the Atlantis hotel. They should produce a list which includes: restaurants, bars, gardens water parks, air conditioned rooms, etc.

2) Conversation
Give out the sheet containing the points for discussion that you prepared previously (Step 2 of Preparation above). In pairs within their groups, the students can now talk to one another about the topics. As they do so, go round the class listening and offering help where necessary. When the students have finished, conclude the lesson by asking a few students to report on the conversation that they have had.